Model Art No. 44 is devoted to Super Dreadnoughts – battleships from the beginning (HMS Dreadnought in 1907) to the US Navy’s Iowa class (the last operational dreadnought). As usual, in this issue there is extensive historical information along with kit builds of examples. The magazine itself is A4 size – somewhat longer and less wide than standard US 8.5 x 11 inches. There is a centerfold with the full-sized cover art of the Yamato firing a full broadside and Tamiya’s 1/350 Yamato model.

The coverage starts with a 14-page pictorial on Zvezda’s 1/350 HMS Dreadnought, the battleship that lended its name to describe the world’s most powerful weapon at that time. A beautiful kit, with pages of how to build the kit.

Next up is the ultimate Super Dreadnought – Tamiya’s 1/350 IJN Yamato. 20 pages showing details on building the kit (in late 1944 fit). Again, a beautifully built model.

A history of battleships, from wooden walls (HMS Victory) to the last battleships built. This section is written in Japanese, so is less useful to modelers who do not read that language, but there are line drawings of major classes of dreadnoughts from every country.

Pages 62-113 show a series of 4-page features on 13 specific battleship kits. Seldom-seen kits, such as Kombrig’s 1/700 resin kits of HMS Monarch and Erin are mixed in with stalwart kits such as Tamiya’s 1/700 HMS Nelson and USS Missouri, along with newer kits like Aoshima’s bent-funnel 1933 IJN Nagato. Tips on corrections or super-detailing are shown for each kit.

Eight pages of the Year 2600 Japanese Naval Review follow, with B&W photographs of ships from 1914. Six pages of finished models showing Pit-Road’s IJN Chogei tender and Kobo-Hiryu’s 1/700 resin IJN Katsuriki survey ships follow. The final feature is Revell Archives, showing different renditions of the venerable USS North Carolina kit. I used to have the old 1/535 scale Renwal version (and still have parts in my spares box), so this nostalgic feature was a pleasant surprise.

Summary: This issue is for battleship nuts. Does a decent job illustrating the history of battleships in the 1900s, with a few hard-to-find twists being builds of obscure Kombrig battleship kit. Nothing really new, but a helpful resource if one is building battleship kits.

Thanks to Dragon Models USA for the review copy and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.

Figures

• Figure 1: Front cover of Model Art No. 44 Summer 2012 Super Dreadnoughts.
• Figure 2: HMS Dreadnought, the battleship that gave a name to a generation of warships. Zvezda 1/350 kit.
• Figure 3: IJN Yamato, the largest Super Dreadnought of all. Mizuno’s painting showing a 1944 version of IJN Yamato firing a full broadside.
• Figure 4: Kombrig’s 1/700 scale resin kit of HMS Erin, a classic WW1 superdreadnought. Something seldom seen.